About Us

Awesome Buffalo awards $1000 no-strings-attached cash micro-grants to help make Buffalo more awesome.

Cash comes straight from the pockets of our trustees—a handful of Buffalo’s good neighbors. Awesome Buffalo isn’t like other funding sources; instead, we fund the unfundable. We give our money to those quirky ideas that’ve been deemed too outrageous, to projects that just make people laugh, or to something that causes others to think in a new way. If you’ve got an unconventional idea that needs some support, you’ve come to the right place.

Once you submit an application, it'll be considered through 2018. We’ll give out awards during odd months (March-November). If you’re selected as a winner, you’ll hear from us near the end of that month.

What makes a project Awesome?

Here're some loose guidelines to help you understand what we're looking for.

►►Impact: Does it help people? Does it increase happiness in Buffalo? How will you be able to measure its success?

►► Joy and surprise: Does it make people smile?

►►Innovation: Is it a totally new idea?

►► Staying power: Will it stick around after the money is gone?

►►Environmental impact: Needless waste is not awesome.

►►Bigness: Is there potential to reach a lot of people?

►►Value: Will $1000 be able to make your project happen?

►►Local: How will this help the city of Buffalo?

We don’t typically fund:

►► Personal use: We think you’re really awesome, but we’re probably not going to just give you $1000 for a car/vacation/rent payment/home repair/pony… unless it’s the crucial component of a bigger project that also benefits others!

►► Charities and foundations: We’re primarily interested in funding projects or new ventures and not the continuation of an existing organization. If your organization still wants to apply, think of a specific, creative $1000 project that our money could go directly towards!

►► Vague causes: That is to say, the more specific you are in your application about what you’ll use the money for and why, the more likely we are to fund it! Good luck!

Need some help writing your proposal? We've broken it down into 8 easy steps here!

Participate

Want to put in some cash to make Buffalo even more awesome? Head to Venmo, where we collect donations. Just like us, you can't deduct what you contribute to your taxes, but we appreciate you joining the Awesome movement in Buffalo.